News-Media Gains Access to Governor's E-mail

Photo by John S. Stewart (Associated Press, 2004)

By Caylin Harris

According to First Amendment Center, the governor of Missouri has been forced by a court settlement to hand over old emails to the news- media. Governor Matt Blunt’s administration was sued by news-media outlets when they were told that access to the records would cost them over $23,000.

The legal settlement stated that Blunt’s administration should give free copies of his email records to various news-media to comply with the Sunshine Law requests.

The battle for the email records started when the Springfield News-Leader was unable to gain access to deleted emails that the paper had requested from a member of Blunt’s administration. Before long The Associated Press, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star were involved in the lawsuit, which was originally brought against the governor by court appointed attorneys.

The settlement requires the emails to be provided within 30 days unless they are pertaining to matters exempt under the Sunshine Law. According to the article, “the emails of Governor Blunt; former chief of staff Ed Martin; communications director Rich Chrismer; former general counsel Henry Herschel; former legal counsel Scott Eckersley; and Rich AuBuchon, the former legal counsel and acting director of Blunt’s Office of Administration” are included in the settlement.